For several decades, successive governments have awarded the country's highest civilian awards to some ineligible people neglecting the truly deserving, alleged Nehru Yuva Kendra Sanghatan (NYKS) vice-chairman S. Vishnuvardhan Reddy here on Monday.
The Anantapur unit of the sangathan felicitated three persons from the district who received the President’s Award for their services to society in their respective fields in 2019.
Speaking at the function, Mr. Vishnuvardhan Reddy said it was a coincidence that three from the same district had got the award and it was a record of sorts that had not been witnessed in the past 40 years.
Describing the process of awarding genuine persons/organisations one of the most transparent and difficult ones, he said of the 1,950 applications for the awards, a six-member committee short-lists them and then a background check is done on all the winners by the Central Intelligence Bureau.
Mr. Reddy said it was unfortunate the genuine efforts made by the Rural Development Trust (RDT) in the past four decades in uplifting the lives of the poor in the district by running health and education initiatives had gone unnoticed.
Call to students
RDT programme director Moncho Ferrer, who was given President’s Award for promoting sports in rural areas through the Anantapur Sports Academy, said when they began the initiative three decades ago, people criticised the RDT for taking up the initiative at a place where food and water was the main necessity.
“Today, 15,000 children regularly practise at several of RDT’s facilities, that have empowered them in several ways,” said Mr. Moncho pointing out at the moral strength it had given to even the disabled.
The two other persons felicitated were Adireddy Pardesi Naidu, Government Medical College NSS Coordinator for promoting organ donation, and Bisati Jeevan Kumar for promoting Swachh Bharat through Vision Youth Association.
Superintendent of Police B. Satya Yesu Babu and District Collector S. Satyanarayana asked students to take inspiration from the award winners.
